the observer is a necessary
part of the landscape
feet mired in sludge of belonging
intrinsic faecal matter
mould of mortal detritus
leaves
fallen
to the matted
carpet

the auditor makes the sound of the forest
a communion
with the bark
lichen & fungus
the light
striking
a droplet
poised
shattering
into tactile solidity
of a rainbow small
enough to fit in the closed palm

peters out like pattering hail,
a taste of bilberries not yet ripe
clinging unwanted to the tongue.

3

I have been dreaming
that my teeth are falling out.
Freud would attribute this
to anxiety
about incipient impotence .
I think it is because
my teeth are falling out

4

smoke from a steamer
blends into brown fog
men in duffel coats
wrap clumsy fingers
round steaming sandwiches
of fish grilled on the deck
of the boat that caught them
as they wait for the ferry
that will take them to work

here people have different
expectations, gods
a different way of writing
the same brands of soft drink
holes in the pavement
an unwary or unlucky person
could lose
their life in

they have caverns measureless
to man & an economy
of the kind that in some places
leads to hardship & lust
for war

they are happy & they are miserable
their carpets are the finest & their tea the sweetest

nothing resembles anything but itself

5

admire the architecture, crossbeam
& corbel, mullions of a window
only internal
trowelscrapes for fragments
of significance
nothing without
the text
has integrity, responds
to nothing beyond

the beam is not a homage, it's a beam
that holds the splaying walls from falling out